Exactly How Bryan Johnson Uses Sauna (Temperature, Time, Frequency, Style)

Exactly How Bryan Johnson Uses Sauna (Temperature, Time, Frequency, Style)

Bryan Johnson talks about a lot of things: blood work, biological age, sperm counts, microplastics, odd gadgets. Underneath all of that is something very simple: a consistent, hot, dry sauna routine that looks a lot like traditional Finnish sauna.

At Simply Sauna, a mobile wood-fired barrel sauna rental based in Bedminster, New Jersey, we pay close attention to how people actually use a real Finnish-style sauna for health. Bryan’s routine is a useful example of serious, high-heat sauna use that isn’t just spa fluff.

This article is just about that routine:

• What kind of sauna he uses

• How hot he goes

• How long he stays in

• How often he does it

• What he stacks on top (cold, testicle cooling, hydration)

• How a normal person could copy the shape of it without living like a lab experiment

No theory lecture, no statistics debate. Just his protocol and practical takeaways — plus how that translates to a wood-fired barrel sauna rental in New Jersey like Simply Sauna.

Why people care about his sauna routine

Bryan’s sauna use gets attention for two reasons:

1. He actually publishes numbers
   In his sauna articles, he calls sauna a “potential detox and longevity intervention” and sets out to test it with real measurements instead of vibes. (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

2. He’s copying the “heavy use” patterns from Finnish data
   He explicitly references Finnish dry sauna and its heart benefits, and leans into high heat and frequent sessions rather than casual, once-in-a-while use. (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

So even if you don’t want to live like him, his sauna routine is a clear, concrete example of how someone serious is using hot, dry sauna for health.

The type of sauna he uses

Bryan is not talking about low-temp infrared panels or a lukewarm “spa room.” His own articles focus on dry Finnish-style sauna:

• Heated stones

• Low humidity

• Hot air, full-body exposure

In “The hot truth about Finnish saunas,” he argues that dry sauna is likely superior to wet sauna, because low humidity allows your skin to heat quickly while your core rises more slowly. That temperature gradient forces your heart to push more blood to the skin — basically a cardio-like load without moving. (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

So when we talk about “Bryan Johnson’s sauna protocol,” we’re really talking about:

A traditional, hot, dry, Finnish-style sauna environment.

That’s the same general style of heat you get in a wood-fired barrel sauna, like the mobile sauna rentals we run at Simply Sauna in New Jersey.

How hot he goes

Bryan isn’t shy about the heat. Across his sauna content and social posts, he talks about very hot sessions, and in his own Blueprint write-ups he’s framed his experiment around a dry sauna at about 200°F (~93°C). (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

That’s:

• Right at the top end of typical Finnish sauna ranges (usually 175–212°F / 80–100°C)

• Much hotter than most hotel “saunas” that barely feel warm

The key point: he’s deliberately working at a real Finnish sauna temperature, not a “warm room” temperature.

How long he stays in

Bryan usually talks about sauna in terms of single, solid blocks of time, not tiny in-and-out visits. From his articles and experiment framing, the basic session looks like:

• Around 20 minutes in the hot, dry sauna per session, at roughly that 200°F mark. (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

He’s using each session as a meaningful “dose” of heat stress — enough time to:

• Get fully sweating

• Push the cardiovascular system

• Create that “I did something” feeling afterward

How often he does it

This is where his routine really stands out.

He is clearly aiming at frequent sauna use, mirroring the “4–7 times per week” pattern from Finnish cohort studies he cites in his blog posts on heart health and sauna. (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

Put simply:

• His protocol lives in the near-daily range: about 5–7 sessions per week

• He set it up that way on purpose, because that’s the sauna pattern linked with better heart outcomes in Finnish data

So the backbone of his routine is:

Hot, dry sauna at ~200°F for about 20 minutes, most days of the week.

For a normal person in New Jersey using a mobile sauna rental, that might look more like a few focused sessions per week rather than daily, but the structure is the same.

Extras he stacks on top

Bryan doesn’t just sit in a hot room and walk away. He layers other tactics onto the sauna sessions.

Cold exposure

He regularly combines sauna with different forms of cold:

• Cold plunges

• Cold showers

• “Contrast” days where he goes hot → cold → hot

This mirrors traditional northern European sauna culture and adds another stress/recovery element on top of the heat.

Testicle cooling

Heat isn’t good for sperm quality. In his own content, Bryan talks about this bluntly:

• He’s said sauna heat “devastated” his sperm markers when he didn’t protect against it.

• In his “My sperm health protocol” article, he explicitly lists “avoid testicular heat: no saunas (or sauna with a testicular ice pack)” as part of his fertility strategy. (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

His solution is odd but simple:

• Use very hot sauna for the systemic benefits

• Keep the testicles cooler (for example with an ice pack over the scrotum) to protect sperm quality

You don’t have to do this yourself, but it’s a clear sign he takes heat’s impact on fertility seriously.

Hydration and electrolytes

Bryan doesn’t just sweat and guess. In “Is sauna worth the hype?” and related posts, he describes measuring sweat and sodium loss and using that data to shape his hydration strategy — for example, how much sodium he loses in a 20-minute 200°F session and how to replace it. (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

Practically, that means:

• Drinking water and electrolyte mixes around sessions

• Treating sauna more like a hard workout to recover from properly, not like a casual hot bath

This same logic applies when you’re using a wood-fired barrel sauna rental in NJ: treat a long, hot session like exercise, not like sitting on the couch.

Where sauna sits inside Blueprint

Sauna is one major lever, but it’s not the only thing going on.

Inside Blueprint, sauna is combined with:

• A tightly controlled diet

• Regular cardio and strength training

• Sleep routines

• Various tests and protocols for hormones, lipids, and more (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

So when you see his charts about:

• Vascular age

• Blood pressure

• Microplastics and chemicals

• Sperm metrics (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

You’re always looking at sauna plus everything else. That doesn’t make sauna unimportant — it just means you shouldn’t expect sauna alone to reproduce his exact numbers.

What a normal person can copy

You probably don’t want your life to revolve around lab tests. But you can borrow the basic shape of his sauna routine and scale it to your reality.

Here’s a grounded template for a generally healthy adult (this is not medical advice; talk to your doctor if you have heart disease, uncontrolled blood pressure, are pregnant, etc.):

1. Get the right environment

   • Use a real hot, dry sauna (Finnish-style or wood-fired).

   • If your “sauna” never gets above 150°F and feels like a warm bathroom, it’s not the same thing.

   • If you’re near Bedminster, NJ or within our service area, a mobile wood-fired barrel sauna rental from Simply Sauna gives you that proper Finnish-style environment in your own driveway or yard.

2. Temperature

   • Start around 170–185°F (77–85°C) if you’re new.

   • If you adapt and feel good, you can nudge closer to the 190–200°F range over time, but you don’t have to hit 200°F to benefit.

3. Time

   • Begin with 10–15 minutes per session.

   • If you tolerate it well, build toward 15–20 minutes per session, similar to Bryan’s duration.

4. Frequency

   • Start with 2–3 sessions per week.

   • If you enjoy it and it fits your life, consider going to 3–4 sessions per week.

   • You don’t need daily sauna to see value; Bryan’s frequency is at the ambitious end. A weekend rental or a few evenings of sauna in a row can still be very impactful.

5. Basic safety

   • Hydrate before and after.

   • Don’t combine heavy drinking and intense sauna.

   • Get out immediately if you feel faint, dizzy, or “off.”

If fertility is a big priority right now (you’re actively trying to conceive, or you know you have sperm issues), be more conservative:

• Use fewer, shorter, or cooler sessions

• Or talk to a fertility/urology specialist about how aggressive your sauna use should be

Bryan’s own pivot to “protect the testicles while keeping sauna” is a good reminder that heat does matter for sperm.

How a wood-fired barrel sauna compares

From a heat and style standpoint, a wood-fired barrel sauna is very close to what Bryan is aiming for:

• It can reach high Finnish-style temperatures in the 170–200°F range

• It delivers dry heat with the option to add steam by pouring water on the stones

• It gives you that same full-body heat load and deep sweat that his routine revolves around

The difference is logistics:

• Bryan builds this into his daily home setup

• With a mobile wood-fired unit like Simply Sauna, you can:

  • Have that environment delivered to your driveway or yard

  • Run your own “mini Blueprint” weekend of 2–4 solid sessions

  • See how you sleep, feel, and perform afterward — without remodeling your house

If you like it, you can turn that into a recurring habit (whether by renting again or eventually installing your own sauna). If you don’t, you’ve at least tested the real thing, not a watered-down version.

Try Finnish-style sauna in New Jersey without building one

If you’re in New Jersey or nearby (we’re based in Bedminster and typically serve roughly a 60-mile radius into parts of NJ, NY, and PA), you don’t need to build a permanent sauna to try a Bryan-style routine.

Simply Sauna offers:

• Mobile wood-fired barrel sauna rentals in New Jersey

• A true Finnish-style, high-heat, dry sauna experience at your home or event

• Flexible bookings for weekends, small gatherings, and recovery days

It’s an easy way to see how regular hot, dry sauna actually fits into your life — using the same style of heat Bryan Johnson relies on, but on a schedule that works for a normal person.

Quick summary

Boiled down, Bryan Johnson’s sauna routine looks like this:

• Type: Dry, Finnish-style sauna

• Temp: Around 200°F (~93°C)

• Time: ~20 minutes per session

• Frequency: Most days of the week

• Extras: Cold exposure, testicle cooling to protect sperm, deliberate hydration and electrolyte replacement (Blueprint Bryan Johnson)

You don’t need his budget or his lab stack to learn from that. You just need:

• Access to real sauna heat

• A consistent (but realistic) routine

• A bit of common sense about your own health and goals

If you’re looking for a mobile sauna rental in New Jersey, that’s exactly what Simply Sauna brings to your driveway: a traditional, wood-fired barrel sauna that lets you experience the kind of Finnish-style heat Bryan is talking about — and then build a version of his routine that fits a normal person’s life in NJ, NY, and PA.